Ask an Expert: Writing Composition – SATs and College/University Applications

[author][author_info]Our guest blogger for the second week is Diana Thomas, who has taught at The Potter’s School since 2002 and has written the curriculum for Writer’s Workshop, English 2, and Poetry Through Lyrics courses. She also teaches their English 3 Literature Survey and Advanced Composition courses. Diana serves as associate staff at SHARE, and has been consulting with schools in Europe and Asia about their writing programs as well as training national staff to raise writing standards and practices. Diana and her husband Lyle reside in St. Petersburg, Russia, where they are on staff with Church Resource Ministries, serving and training church leadership and working in orphan ministry. They home school their three children – Lydia, Kerith and Simon.[/author_info][/author]

How should my high school student prepare for the essay portion of the SAT?

The 25-minute portion of the SAT essay writing component requires the student to write a five-paragraph essay to a given prompt. The key to solid preparation for this composition should begin as early as the middle school years.

1.      Becoming very familiar and comfortable with the five-paragraph essay format should begin around the sixth grade. By the time a student enters high school, he should already know how to support a thesis, write effective topic sentences, craft supporting points in the body paragraphs, and end with a strong summarizing conclusion. If the essay format is firmly rooted in a student’s experience, he can then focus on drafting quickly.

During the SAT, students can pace themselves if they know what to expect in the organization of an essay.

Breaking down the 25 minutes:

Write thesis and outline: 5 minutes

Draft the paragraphs: 15 minutes

Revise: 5 minutes

2.      Practicing writing to prompts can help relieve some of the stress during the actual test. Drafting possible thesis statements and topic sentences to a variety of persuasive and expository prompts is a good exercise in thinking quickly.

3.      Students should understand and know how to use the different writing traits: organization, elaboration/information, word choice, sentence fluency and variety, voice, and mechanics. These traits are what the essay readers use to determine scores.

How important are the essays for a college application?

Extremely important! Essays give students the opportunity to share themselves in a personal way with the admission committee. Grades, class rank, and SAT/ACT scores contribute to the overall picture of academic success, but the essays allow the students to reveal their personalities and show other facets of who they really are. Well-written, effective essays can be the biggest determining factor in college acceptance.

The types of essays applications require vary widely. Some ask for a set of essays centered around a theme, while others ask for one, long persuasive essay. Whatever the application requests, students should leave plenty of time to prepare the essay, revise, get feedback, and revise some more.

 “While at Duke, I did a study of how well single variables predict an applicant’s chances of admission. Being number one in the class gave an applicant about a 50-50 chance of getting in. Having a combined S.A.T. greater than 1,400 gave the student about a 65 percent chance. Receiving the highest score an admission officer could confer on an essay raised the odds to over 90 percent. We asked our admissions panel to tell us what was the most important part of a student’s application. They answered, “The essays.” We asked them what aspects of the application students should focus on during their senior year.  They answered, “The essays.” We asked them over what part of the process the students have the most control. The resounding reply was, “The essays!”

(Essays That Will Get You Into College (3rd edition) Dowhan, Dowhan, & Kaufman)

What are some other great writing tips you’ve recommended?

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